8th February 2009 - Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

With Sophie continuing the four-day Tongariro Northern Circuit, I went over to the North Head to watch some of the America's Cup boats sailing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.

Alinghi leads BMW Oracle Racing up the first beat

There were three races scheduled, and the first one (between two Italian crews) got away on time at about 11am. The wind was dying though, and I spent the next 5 hours or so waiting in blazing sun for the next race to start. They did complete the other two races. The 2nd was between Alinghi (Swiss) and Oracle, and the third was between Emirates Team New Zealand and Team Origin (British). Pleasingly, the British team won.

Team Origin crosses ahead of Team New Zealand

These crews showcase some impressive match-racing skills, maneuvering 25-metre (82-foot) boats to within metres of each other. It's entertaining to watch, although it might be a little bewildering for those who aren't into their sailing. The scoring/ranking system for this event was particularly opaque - check out the wikipedia page.

More photos here, but you'd better like boats...

6th-7th February 2009: Tongariro Alpine Crossing

One of the things remaining on our must-do list was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, allegedly New Zealand's best one-day walk. We walked to a DOC hut near the start point the night before to get an early start and give ourselves the time to climb one of the volcanos that the main track skirts. This also gave Sophie, newly time-rich, the opportunity to do the full Tongariro Northern Circuit, of which the crossing is day 2. We took a bunch of CHPers along: Alex, James, Luke and Ken.

Day 1 was a late start after the drive down but a short 3-hour yomp took us to the Mangatepopo Hut near the start of the crossing. We had an chilled-out evening drinking some wine, playing cards and watching the sunset.

On day 2 we left the hut at 6:50am with the tops shrouded in cloud. We reached the first saddle an hour or so later, and decided to begin the climb up Ngauruhoe (pronouced Nah-eu-ru-ho-eh or something), a nearly perfect volcanic cone towering above the area. This turned out to be somewhat more challenging than we expected, with about 700m of loose scree and sharp volcanic rocks. The views from the top made it worth it though, as by the time we got there the clouds had cleared completely.

The view from the crater of Naguaruhoe

The remainder of the crossing provided us with views of bright-red craters, emerald lakes and steaming thermal areas; a spectacular collection that really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. Our legs had appreciated enough by the last hour or so of the walk - the volcanic side-trip adds quite a bit to an already substantial outing.

CHPers and a volcano

Having now 'done' Ngaruramaramawhakahoe, next time we'll only have to do the cushy amble to the summit of Tongariro.

More photos here.

4th February 2009: Le Grand Cirque at The Civic

Kate organised a trip to see Le Grand Cirque, and the usual bunch of around 8 CHPers went along.

The show was similar to Cirque du Soleil (I imagine, having never seen Cirque du Soleil myself). We were very impressed and gasped several times during the evening watching people do things that should be impossible.

Particularly impressive? The double-jointed girl who frequently looked like two halves of a person stacked the wrong way up; the man balancing on a ladder with a couple of ladies standing on his shoulders; an unfeasible number of people on a bicycle; the people who sprinted up and down poles, sometimes using only their hands; the list goes on.

The cast was mostly Oriental and wore polished inscrutable smiles that didn't let you know which the really difficult moves were. The exception was a white girl who swung on a high rope trapeze, periodically yodelling a high-pitched screech. We weren't sure if this was to motivate her or to excite us; I confess I preferred the polished smiles, on the whole.

This is the first time in a long time that any show has ended leaving me wishing it could have gone on for another hour.

31st January - 1st February 2009: Kauaeranga Kauri Trail

We repeated the walk to the Pinnacles Hut, this time taking more people, more wine and more steak. With us were Mark, Nishan, Kate, Stephen and Luke.

Saturday was hot and humid, but the climb up to the hut felt a lot easier than the last time we did it. We arrived at the hut in plenty of time to climb the Pinnacles that afternoon and enjoyed a display of rock-climbing skills by Luke. Later we paddled and admired the reflections in the amazingly calm pools near the hut.

Not far from the Pinnacles Hut

The evening was great fun: there's something very satisfying about having carried wine and steak up a hill, that makes you enjoy it all the more. We timed Stephen (a fell runner by trade) climbing back up to the Pinnacles summit in 8 minutes to get mobile reception to call his girlfriend.

On Sunday we split into two groups. The majority opted for the longer walk back via Moss Creek campsite, while Tim, Sophie and Nishan took the Billygoat track. We had a very relaxed lunch sitting just above the Billygoat Falls (Sophie thinks this may be the best lunch spot ever), while the others bush-whacked their way out. Stephen set off alone on a detour and got properly lost for a while. It's hard to appreciate just how wild this area is as soon as you're off the track: you're many miles from help, and one bit of bush looks exactly like another. Luckily, after some swimming down a stream, he found his way back onto a track and out.

The final swing-bridge over the Kauaeranga river

More photos here.

We'll be sorry if we don't get to visit this area again, but there's so much more to see!

23rd-26th January 2009: Sydney

The CHP annual partners' dinner was in Sydney, so we headed over for the bank-holiday weekend. We also took the opportunity to visit Sophie's cousin Matt and his wife Celine, who live in Darlington, a suburb of Sydney. Sophie and Matt spent Friday evening catching up on the last 10 years.

It was Sophie's first trip to Sydney, so we set out on Saturday to see a few sights. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating: 42℃ is not an ideal temperature for wandering around. Gusts of wind in the botanic gardens felt like an oven door being opened nearby. Eventually we escaped to the Sydney Shangri La, our CHP-provided hotel for the next two nights.

The CHP dinner was at Guillaume's restaurant, in one of the sails of the iconic Opera House. The seven-course extravaganza was predictably excellent, and the matched wines were also very good.

Sunday was busy. We went for a 15-minute seaplane flight in the morning, giving us excellent views of the harbour, its bridge, and the beaches. After that we met up with a few other CHPers to board the 18-foot-skiff spectator ferry, which follows the fleet during their races. These overpowered sailing boats are excellent to watch, particularly with beer, as their crews struggle to keep them upright and guide them round the course.

After the sailing, we met Matt, Celine and some of their friends on Bronte beach for a relaxed few hours. Tim went for a swim and nearly got carried off by a rip-tide, but all finished well.

Monday was Australia day and Syndey was packed. We had a 3:30pm flight to catch, but we managed to catch sight of the annual Ferrython (a race between ferries, obviously). We also saw some funky close-harmony singing at The Rocks before heading to the airport.

Tim, Sophie, Celine and Matt

More photos, from the seaplane and of skiffs, here.

6th January 2009: Queenstown

After finishing the Kepler Track we took a scenic bus ride (Tracknet are excellent) back to Queenstown for the last night of our holiday.

For our final morning, we took the gondola up to the hills above Queenstown and had a quick go on the highly enjoyable luge, before heading to the airport.

We were back in Auckland by mid-afternoon, marvelling at the sunshine and relative warmth of the city.

2nd-5th January 2009: Kepler Track

"Hello. We'd like to pick up our hut passes for the Kepler Track, please."

The man in the DOC office in Te Anau was very helpful. "Here's the forecast for tomorrow. I think they'll probably close the alpine section of the track, because the wind is forecast to reach 100km per hour above 1000m." Well, we wouldn't get to the high level section until the following day, but what would happen to all the people who weren't able to do it tomorrow? Would the hut tomorrow night be somewhat overcrowded?

"The next day the wind looks like dropping off a bit [a mere 70kph] but it's going to snow above 1200m. Also there are some trees down on the track you'll walk tomorrow. I believe it's passable though. Oh, and watch out for the falcon in the Rainbow Reach area. It's been attacking walkers on the track, so be sure to wear a hat. We had a chap in here two days ago with a great gash across his head."

Hmm. This wasn't how the Routeburn Track had started out a few days before. That was much more a case of, "Here are your tickets. Would you like a rubbish bag?"

Still, Anna, Chris, Tim and I defied fallen trees, weather and aggressive falcons, and set out the next morning on our four-day walk. Seemingly against all odds, we managed to survive it unscathed and without track closure.

Day 1 was an 800m climb in the rain. We didn't hang aboout; even brand new Gore-Tex doesn't keep you dry in Fiordland rain, so breaks were kept short to avoid getting cold. We reached Luxmore Hut by about 2pm and spent the afternoon and evening drying off our kit together with 50-odd other damp hikers. That evening we had some lovely views across Lake Te Anau - the clearest views of the walk, as it turned out.

Luxmore Hut

Day 2 is the alpine crossing, and was a day of intermittent horizontal snow. Somehow this felt more Christmassy than anything yet - snow on 3rd January makes me feel as if I'm at the right end of the world. Slightly weird to have it a week after midsummer in NZ though.


All we could see from the highest point (the 1472m Mount Luxmore) was the inside of a cloud. However, we had more luck at the last viewpoint just before dropping back below the treeline, and enjoyed some pretty partially-clouded views over Lake Manapouri. They fuelled us for the 91 hairpin bends in the track through the trees to Iris Burn Hut.

Chris and Anna walked out from Iris Burn to Rainbow Reach the next day, while Tim and I stayed in Moturau hut and walked out to Te Anau the day after. The final evening was great fun; three days of walking and some bad weather had made the hut atmosphere very sociable, and we were pleased to find we were chatting with the owners of Artisan Wines, a winery just outside Auckland. We feel it would be only polite to visit and sample their wines some time soon. Earlier in the walk we had also met a very interesting DOC employee whose uncle originated guided walking on the Routeburn Track.

The Kepler had its moments for weather, but turned out to be a great walk for wildlife. We saw a number of keas showing off the bright orange underside to their wings; fantails in the woods near Lake Moturau; a sleek stag in velvet near Iris Burn Hut; a falcon (which didn't attack us, and which we would have thought was part of a treestump had the DOC man not pointed it out); and Chris found glow-worms under a rock near Iris Burn Hut.